[Closed] Company mistakenly advertised a benefit in a job advert?

Find out what the cost for you to obtain the cover you want privately is - ask them for additional gross that will deliver that value net?

You have no contract with them currently. You may be able to negotiate a better deal in lieu of no health insurance, and you may be worth it to them, or not.

I had one a few years back after getting made redundant.

Job was advertised at X thousand pounds. They offered me it for £6k less and told me that it was a mistake in the advert. After a bit of haggling they bumped it up by £2k.

“Mistake” my arse. Bloody time wasters.

Luckily in the meantime another offer came along so I took that.

As above ask for additional on your salary, you may get something from them, you may not, they may find the bod second in line for the job doesn't care about the healthcare and will take the job without. At this point you're no more entitled to it though than they would be to demand 3 months work from you as notice if you sent the offer back with a "sorry found something better".

I'd give a company that either knowingly or mistakenly offers stuff they don't honour a wide berth, it's either cock-up or conspiracy. And as for On-Boarding I'd be straight out of the door!

Does anyone know where I might stand if they turn round and say that they cannot offer it?

No, but you could ask for a salary increase to cover the cost of annual health care, think the value of my bupa package is around £840 a year.

I very much doubt you could make the advert stick as part of a (as new unsigned) contract. Besides, private healthcare is a waste of money anyway. You might be able to bargain for something more useful instead...

BTW WTF is "handling the on-boarding process"?

Besides, private healthcare is a waste of money anyway.

The shiny new ankle I got this year, using a technique not widely available on the NHS, says otherwise

+1 for requesting that the cost of the benefit is grossed up and added to your salary.

BTW WTF is "handling the on-boarding process"?

Newspeak for doing the admin prior to your starting work. I had that from a cult I once joined, aka a well-known three letter abbreviation-based Merkan IT company.

Can't see logic for gross up as it is a taxable benefit

Besides, private healthcare is a waste of money anyway.

I'd disagree, went from having an mri scan on my knee a couple of years ago to having the operation within a week.

Used private a few times and been much quicker, same doctors but quick appointment and scans etc. Plus frees up nhs space for others.

The shiny new ankle I got this year, using a technique not widely available on the NHS, says otherwise

Ankles are supposed to have a matte finish. take it back.

same doctors but quick appointment and scans etc. Plus frees up nhs space

I'm not quite sure how you figure that, unless you're better at being in two places at once than most people.

Funny that an HR dept would make a mistake like that. In my experience they're all highly skilled, conscientious individuals, extremely deserving of their inflated salaries.

Newspeak for doing the admin prior to your starting work. I had that from a cult I once joined, aka a well-known three letter abbreviation-based Merkan IT company.

Must post-date my membership of that cult 😉

I'm not quite sure how you figure that, unless you're better at being in two places at once than most people.

Wait for an MRI scan on the nhs is about 6 months for the issue I had and that's after a long wait to see a consultant. Private mri scans are available pretty much as soon as the consultant says you need one.

in the past three years, my wife has had a knee reconstructed, and tumors removed from her ankle and from her brain under her private health care. She's had the top doctors and consultants in the UK deal with her.

I'd say her private healthcare was well worth it.

Used private a few times and been much quicker, same doctors but quick appointment and scans etc. Plus frees up nhs space for others.

My understanding is that it's more like paying for a "queue jumping" pass at Alton Towers. You get seen earlier, everyone on NHS gets seen later.

Given the risk of derailment is long passed...

Gary_M - Member

I'm not quite sure how you figure that, unless you're better at being in two places at once than most people.

Wait for an MRI scan on the nhs is about 6 months for the issue I had and that's after a long wait to see a consultant. Private mri scans are available pretty much as soon as the consultant says you need one.

I'm not suggesting that private healthcare is good or bad by that (I'm sure there will be a thread on that already and certainly it's a debate for one if not) just that of all the possible benefits it may have, freeing up nhs time by using the same nhs staff (and facilities) to do non nhs work isn't one of them. Those doctors can't be in two places at once and seeing you in private practice instead of on the nhs doesn't create time to see someone else.

freeing up nhs time by using the same nhs staff (and facilities) to do non nhs work isn't one of them.

I went to a private hospital for my consultant appointments, MRI scan and surgery. So I freed up MRI space and surgery space in the nhs. I'm pretty sure my consultant only does private work or splits his time between the two.

DezB - Member

Funny that an HR dept would make a mistake like that. In my experience they're all highly skilled, conscientious individuals, extremely deserving of their inflated salaries.

My understanding is that it's more like paying for a "queue jumping" pass at Alton Towers. You get seen earlier, everyone on NHS gets seen later.

Then 'your understanding' is limited. 'Queue jumping'is only part (though a significant benefit) of it.

Used the private healthcare loads with the old job, and it had loads of benefits, so I'm quite keen to keep it.

I'll try to negotiate a bit of extra cash of they won't budge.

Funny that an HR dept would make a mistake like that. In my experience they're all highly skilled, conscientious individuals, extremely deserving of their inflated salaries.

Feel free to try and negotiate a cash equivalent to take advantage of HR's mistake but don't be surprised if any future requests to HR are stonewalled.

The level of healthcare is a consideration but, given the circumstances, you probably don't know.
Employee only or spouse included?
Pre-existing conditions?
Any cap on cost of treatment?
Just a few of the considerations in assessing value of benefit.
As above, be careful how you play it; you have no contract to rely on; hardball will (probably) see you lose.
If you have copy of original advert does it state EOE?
What other job options do you have today? Have you given notice in current job?
Offer and acceptance in contract law; what did they offer and what did you accept?
Can you 'rely' in a legal sense on the advert?

In true STW fashion I've not read other responses, but you want the job, private health care isn't usually that great and you haven't signed any contract yet, so they're not bound. The fact that they are trying suggests they are keen to have you and aren't all bad.

freeing up nhs time by using the same nhs staff (and facilities) to do non nhs work isn't one of them. Those doctors can't be in two places at once and seeing you in private practice instead of on the nhs doesn't create time to see someone else.

Yes it does - they'll not be seeing you on the time that they are contracted to the NHS for. If you didn't see them in that time, you'd queue with everyone else and see them on their NHS time. The people behind you in that queue will wait longer than they would if you had not been ahead of them in that queue.

Same with facilities - the slots for private scans are not taking away NHS slots, they are additional.

Obviously, it's a bit more complicated and there can and often are mutual benefits - in a privately run MRI unit in an NHS hospital the private business subsidises the NHS work in effect - the NHS gets more capacity for their £s so everyone, in all the queues, benefits.

Same with facilities - the slots for private scans are not taking away NHS slots, they are additional

My Private MRI took place in a private hospital, MRI machines there do no NHS work.

I can vouch that our private health care is pretty shit these days. We have vitality at work and its genuinely been rubbish for the boss. Limited appointments, little choice of hospitals, don't go to the one they list then there's an extra charge etc. It used to be good but not anymore

Yes it does - they'll not be seeing you on the time that they are contracted to the NHS for. If you didn't see them in that time, you'd queue with everyone else and see them on their NHS time. The people behind you in that queue will wait longer than they would if you had not been ahead of them in that queue.

So you say they have their time split between NHS and private care, however if private care didn't exist surely that time wouldn't need to be split and would solely be focused on public NHS care.

Unless they're working over and above their 80+ NHS hours.

In essence private care is queue jumping and better provided care, yes I do have it as part of my benefit package.

We have vitality at work and its genuinely been rubbish for the boss.

We use Vitality and I found it fine. Had a choice of three hospitals within cycling distance, and was seen within 10 days.

Threads been derailed so I’ll add..

Depends on how much you want the job.
If the company omitted the Private Healthcare in the contract you can only base your decision on the fact that it’s [i]not[/i] included.

So, how much do you want the job?

I would push for them to provide the healthcare, particularly if it is family cover. I don’t know your personal situation, but if you get married and have kids in the future, then family cover will include them, at no extra cost to you (except for the BIK). If they just bung you an extra £1k salary now, then this wouldn’t cover the cost of extra family members on the policy in years to come

Private health care was very much worth it for me. Stuff freeing up places for others, I'm paying to be seen quickly and ideally would like a refund for not using the NHS that im forced to pay for.

So you say they have their time split between NHS and private care, however if private care didn't exist surely that time wouldn't need to be split and would solely be focused on public NHS care.

Unless they're working over and above their 80+ NHS hours.

Apologies for the continued derailment, but this is quite wrong and misunderstands the situation somewhat. When consultants are seeing private patients, they are indeed doing it over and above their NHS work. I think with your 80+ hours thing you may just be confusing consultants with junior doctors. Consultants are not doing 80 hours a week for the NHS, or in total!

You may not have noticed, although it's been in the news a bit over the last few years, but the NHS is a bit financially constrained at the moment. If you stopped the consultants doing private work, they would just need fewer of them, because there's a finite amount of money for them.

As I said previously, the private work isn't instead of the NHS work, it's in addition. Oh, and if you stopped them doing private work, you'd lose a load of them, so I suppose that could pay for the increases for those that are left. Still doesn't create any new capacity though, just rearranges it.

Take the job. Go off on sick. Tell them you would be back at work if you'd gone private.

Most but not all edlong. I have seen consultants deliberately making their waiting lists long and thus touting for private business during NHS consultations.

Its rare tho for sure and probably rare nowadays

To go back to the OP - I would play hardball - infact I would see it as evidence of such incompetence that I would probably refuse the job

If they can cock something as basic as that up before the job is even offered what will they be like to work for? I don't buy it being an accident anyway.

If they can cock something as basic as that up before the job is even offered what will they be like to work for?

you really shouldn't take a basic error like this as any kind of indication of what the company is like to work for.

Unless they're working over and above their 80+ NHS hours

I think it's changed a little recently but full-time contract is 11 x "PA"s (programmed activity?) per week and I believe each is either 3 or 3.5 hrs. SOme do more than that but that's locally negotiated and not a requirement.

To do loads (more than 10% of their time?) of private work, a consultant had to drop from full-time to maximum part-time, which was 10 x PAs (so 30-35 hrs - or the equivalent, as things like overnight on-call counts more hours per PA as they're not always at work)

So (even if current rules aren't quite the same) there's plenty of time i a consultant's week for private sessions. I don't care if they do so, although it'd make me cross if NHS equipment was being hijacked for this

IANAD

Brakes why not? To me it shows incompetence and also shows a culture of carelessness

Sorry about the healthcare derailment 🙂 But the point about it not being contractual stands. I guess you get to find out early doors how flexible and generous they are likely to be in their employment, which is no bad thing.

although it'd make me cross if NHS equipment was being hijacked for this

Once again, apologies for being way off topic, but this isn't really how it is. Taking the example of an MRI scanner, for example many of these are privately owned and / or operated. It goes something like this:

Private company puts in a scanner and employs radiographers, admin staff etc. Hospital contracts with private provider to provide scanning service - the contractual form will vary from place to place, but they might contract for x scans per month, or X hours availability with a minimum of Y scans. The private company can then use the scanner and staff for whatever it likes on top / outside those hours.

This is one reason why private patients can get easier access to times that suit those in work - the scanner might be exclusively doing NHS work from 9-5 but the company has the unit open from 6am - 10pm with the private patients getting the early morning and evening slots.

The company makes profit on those scans (the per scan area price to BUPA is unsurprisingly a little different to what the NHS is paying), so the NHS can benefit as the amount the company has to charge the NHS and still make it's profit is considerably less than it would be if they did the NHS work exclusively.

The hospital then has more money for other things, or indeed for more scans.

Brakes why not? To me it shows incompetence and also shows a culture of carelessness

it is a single error, I personally wouldn't extrapolate to such extents.

Any reason why you signed accepted their offer without seeing confirmation of the healthcare benefit (as well as everything else)?